A WARGRAVE man held a special birthday party to wish many happy returns – to his heart.

Roger Bell, 66, is one of Britain’s longest surviving heart transplant patients and he held a bash to celebrate, attended by seven other heart transplant patients.

Among the guest and friends were Billy and Kathleen Owens, who gave permission for their son John’s heart to be donated.

John was himself a transplant recipient. He suffered from cystic fibrosis and received a heart and lung transplant from an 18-year-old who died in a motorcycle accident. His healthy heart was then donated to Mr Bell.

However, a few weeks after his transplant John died, while Mr Bell went on to live a long and active life.

Mr Owens, from Liverpool, said at the celebration that March 21 would mark the 20th anniversary of the loss of their son.

He went on: “Today we can look back with pride that on the day we lost our lovely son, we helped to save the future of a nice man who received the gift of John’s heart.”

Before his transplant in 1988, Mr Bell had not been expected to survive and the Reverend Canon John Ratings, recently retired vicar of St Mary’s Church in Wargrave who was also at the party, was asked to give him the last rites at Battle Hospital.

But although doctors thought Mr Bell was too old and too ill to receive a transplant, his wife Pam continued to press for the chance to save him.

The life-saving transplant was performed at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex by world famous surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, who was involved in the first-ever transplant in the UK.

Mrs Bell said: “We only recently discovered that John Owens’ heart was to be given to someone else but the other patient was a smoker and did not want to give up the habit – so they gave it to Roger.”

Mr Bell runs his own accountancy business and has led an active life since his operation, winning several medals in the Transplant Olympic Games and taking part in the Fasnet Yacht Race in 2005.

Mr Bell thanked Mr and Mrs Owens at the party on Saturday, February 9, saying: “It must have been a difficult decision for them to take. They suffered such a tragedy over Johnny, but they were happy to see that his being a donor had given me back my life.”

He also paid tribute to his wife saying he would not have survived without her.

The couple are currently fundraising for the Harefield Hospital Scanner Appeal and at the celebration they asked guests to make donations rather than giving presents, raising more than £1,000 at the party at Hennerton Golf Club in Wargrave.